The Hard Knock Life
by Amata le Fay
Summary: Chorus orphans aren't important? Ha! Think again. Here's Alice, to tell her side of the tale.


**Author's Note: This is a little short story I wrote to get into the mind of the character I'm playing. 'Unnamed orphan?' Ha! Think again! Oh yeah, this is Annie Junior we're dealing with.**

_**Alice**_

"Mama! Mama! Mommy!"

My eyelids fluttered open, and I awoke, not that there had been much sleep going on before then. Molly had woken up from a nightmare again.

Pepper, who was sleeping on the cot to the left of Molly's, groaned and pulled her blanket back from over her head momentarily to say, "Shut up!" She then pulled the blanket back over her head.

"Can't anybody get any sleep around here?" Duffy murmured.

Definitely not.

"Mama, Mommy," Molly cried again.

"I said, _shut your trap, Molly!_" Pepper snapped, giving Molly a good shove. July, who was on the other side of the crying girl, quickly grabbed her and said to Pepper "Ahh, stop shovin' the poor kid. She ain't doin' nuthin' to you." Kind, noble, July.

"She's keepin' me awake, ain't she?" Pepper retorted.

"No, _you're_ keeping _us_ awake--" July started.

Pepper abruptly jumped from her bed to a standing, fighting position. Her eyes were just begging for a brawl. "You—wanna—make--somethin'--out of—it?" she growled, sharply accenting each word.

July let go of Molly, and jumped down from her bed. "How 'bout I make a pancake outta _you_?" she said, very uncharacteristically. July almost never went past verbal arguments.

Most of the orphans gathered around to watch. Myself not included.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness." Tessie, the resident worrywart, happened to be standing next to me. Great. "They're fightin' and I won't get no sleep all night. Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!"

I wondered if they were seriously gonna break out into a fight. It would be very like Pepper to do that. That girl has some serious anger problems. I wonder if the death of her parents had been particularly violent...not that I would ask that of anyone, Pepper the least. That wasn't something you talked about regularly.

"Pipe down, all of ya." The redheaded girl, Annie, appeared on the scene just then. She was always the one who calmed down fights, or who comforted Molly or Tessie when they were worried. I didn't know her that well, but the whole orphanage seemed to revolve around her. Did that mean I was on the fringes of this orphanage? Probably, yes.

"Go back to sleep," Annie commanded. She ran over to Molly. "It's all right, Molly. Annie's here."

Molly told Annie about her dream, barely perceptible through a curtain of sobs. But little Molly was only six years old. They should give her a break. Annie listened patiently, giving the younger girl her hanky when needed.

"Blow. It was only a dream, honey. Now, you gotta go back to sleep. It's after three o'clock." Of course, like there would be much time to sleep before Miss Hannigan woke us up with her shrill whistle and accused us of being lazy.

"Annie..." Molly started.

_The note. She's gonna ask for the note, and they're gonna mock it._

"...read me your note."

"Again?"

"Please?"

Annie grinned. "Sure, Molly."

"Here it comes again," Pepper muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes. We had all heard this note a thousand times, the note from Annie's parents to her. It was one of Annie's two prized possessions, along with the locket her parents had left around her neck. Annie lovingly took out the rumpled note and read, "'Please take care of our little darling. Her name is Annie. She--'"

"She was born on October twenty-eighth,'" Kate said mockingly. ""We will be back to get her soon.'"

"'We have left half of a silver locket around her neck and kept the other half--'" Pepper taunted.

"'--so that when we come back for her you'll know that she's _our baby,_'" Duffy finished. They all giggled.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, now they're laughing!" Way to go, Tessie. State that obvious.

"All right. Do you wanna sleep with your teeth insida your mouth or out!" Annie threatened, then folded her note up with extreme care. If one thing bugged Annie, it was mockery of the parents that she was certain she had.

"Gee, I dream about havin' a mother and father again," Molly said, big eyes looking up at Annie admiringly. "But you're lucky. You really got 'em."

"I know." Annie fingered her locket.

I sauntered to the back of the room as Annie and her friends spun fantasies of their parents. I already knew what had happened to my parents. They had died in a freak fire that burned down my house. I had seen it. I had woken up and cried out, "Fire!" just seconds before the first spark fell. I remember every second of that day. I tried to wake them up but their bedroom door was locked. I panicked and ran out the door to get help from somebody, anybody. The house was in smoldering ruins when I came back. It was a miracle that_ I _survived. Apparently, somebody had fed my parents a strong sleeping potion and lit the house on fire. That person had never been caught, the case had been dropped. That had been five years ago. I was seven.

There were many things that scared me about that vivid memory. First, I was scared to death by fire, any fire. I didn't see it very often, but the few times I did, I had my own silent way of panicking. I shut down. I couldn't move, couldn't speak. And my mind would play over and over the scene of my parents burning to death, trapped in the house, until long after the fire was away from me.

Second, someone had purposely tried to kill my parents! Don't try to tell me that's no cause for worry. As a result, whenever Annie mentioned her _living_ parents, it was like an extra slap in the face. I tried to stay out of those conversations.

Third was the fact that I was alive because I had known what was going to happen. My thoughts had screamed _Fire! _at me and woken me up. This still happens to me sometimes. I know what someone's going to say or do moments before they do it. Miss Hannigan especially.

"Maybe?" They had finished their conversation with a prayer to Annie's parents to come get her. Another slap in the face.

A faraway church bell struck one, two, three, four. Four o'clock in the morning. I sat down on my bed and gazed into space. Maddie, who was on the cot next me me murmured, "What is she doing?" I turned my gaze over to Annie, who had started to pack her few possessions in a basket.

"Now what?" Pepper murmured, thoroughly annoyed as she pulled the blanket back from her head for the third time this morning.

"Annie, whatta ya doin'?" Kate asked.

"Runnin' away," Annie stated flatly, as if it should be obvious.

Tessie could only sputter out one "Oh my goodness." Then there was silence as Annie pulled her sweater on. "My folks are never comin' for me. I gotta go find them." She headed for the door to the dormitory. July stood up and caught her arm.

"Annie, you're crazy. Miss Hannigan'll catch you." Her eyes were begging the determined girl not to leave, not to abandon them.

"And give you the paddle," Tessie added. Wow. One sentence that didn't include "Oh my goodness." Maybe she's branching out.

Annie freed her arm from July's grip. "I don't care. I'm getting' outta here." She tucked the basket under her arm. "Okay, I'm ready. Wish me luck."

"Good luck, Annie," I murmured with the rest of the orphans. I sincerely wished her luck—I hoped that the kid would make it out alive. Of which the chances were slim to none.

"So long, dumbbell. And good luck," Pepper muttered.

As Annie tiptoed towards the door, my mind flashed another warning. _She'll be caught by Miss Hannigan. _Annie had already slipped out of the dormitory door. Miss Hannigan was waiting in the hallway, though. The others climbed back into their cots. I kept an eye on the door.

I heard a shrill voice from the hallway. Yelling at Annie, I presumed. And then a thud. Annie being flung to the floor. More yelling. An "I love you, Miss Hannigan" through gritted teeth.

_Miss Hannigan's coming in. _My head spun around to the door. Miss Hannigan walked in, switched on the lights, and blew her whistle. The others were startled awake. "Get up!" she hollered. I cringed.

_She's gonna make us clean this place until it shines like the top of the Chrysler Building, _my mind confirmed._ Tessie's going to cry, and they're all going to complain about this hard-knock life while cleaning._

"Now, for this one's shenanigans, you'll all get down on your knobby little knees and clean this dump until it shines like the top of the Chrysler Building!"

Tessie started to cry. "But it's four o'clock in the morning."

Miss Hannigan laughed, as if that was such a silly reason to not clean. "Get to work."

"Yes, Miss Hannigan," I muttered along with the rest of us. I rarely ever said anything by myself.

"_NOW!_" she screamed, and exited the room with a dramatic thud of the door slamming behind her and a murmuring of, "Why any kid would want to be an orphan, I'll never know." Who ever said we _wanted_ to be orphans? It was merely a cruel twist of fate. Someday I'd want to see how _she_ would cope with _her_ relatives trapped in a house, burning to death. But then again, I wouldn't want to inflict that pain on anyone, not even Miss Hannigan.

I sighed and got to work. Just as I predicted, Annie and Company complained about the hard-knock life. I joined in with the general murmurings of "It's the hard-knock life for us!", "No one cares for you a smidge when you're in an orphanage!" and so on. Partway through the cleaning, little Molly decided to liven things up a bit and do a Miss Hannigan impression, for which Annie and Company (myself included, it was kind of fun) chased her around the room and pushed her into the laundry hamper. It felt good.

_Miss Hannigan's coming in._

Sure enough, the whistle sounded. We ran to our line-up in front of our beds.

_The laundry basket, _my mind flashed. What did that mean?

"Good morning, children," Miss Hannigan said, in the sweetest of her sugary fake voices.

"Good morning, Miss Hannigan."

_The laundry basket. Escape._

"Well?" she said, hands on hips.

"I love you, Miss Hannigan," we chorused.

A muffled, "I love you, Miss Hannigan" came from the laundry basket. Molly!

"You. What are you doing in there?" Miss Hannigan cleared the pillows off of the little girl's head and glared. "Nothin'," Molly replied sheepishly.

_The laundry. The escape._ I always hated it when the warnings made no sense.

"Get her out of there!" she hollered at July, who was nearest to the hamper. She turned back to Molly, "Your days are numbered." The whistle blew. "All right. Breakfast!"

That usually meant... "Hot mush? Yuck!" It was out of my mouth before I could think. Luckily, pretty much everyone else couldn't keep their thoughts to themselves.

"No, not hot mush," Miss Hannigan told us, face carefully neutral. I started to smile, but my mind immediately flashed, _Cold mush._ A wicked grin spread across the witch's face as she confirmed, "Cold mush." We groaned. "And after your mush, you'll go to your sewing machines. There's an order of dresses to finish, if you have to work straight through to midnight."

"Yes, Miss Hannigan."

I actually didn't mind the sewing machines that much. One you got the hang of it, it was a pretty mindless task. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to get the hang of it. Molly, for instance. Well, Molly was only six. And Tessie was always too--

The same cryptic message darted through my head. _Laundry basket bundles annie escape NYC angry._

"Now line up!' Miss Hannigan yelled. We did so.

_Bundles is coming today._

Sure enough, the cheerful little laundry man entered. "Laundry. Laundry man."

"Mornin', Bundles," we chorused.

"Mornin', kids. Clean sheets once a month, whether you need 'em or not!" He grinned.

_Annie escape Bundles' laundry basket NYC angry._

Bundles started to flirt with Miss Hannigan. How pathetic. I rolled my eyes. Just then, my mind screamed at me, _Look at Annie! Annie's escaping in Bundles' laundry basket! She's gonna be out there __free in NYC, and Miss Hannigan's gonna be angry._

I turned, and sure enough, Annie was climbing into the laundry bag! I didn't really know how to feel about this. I was glad she was able to escape this dump, but angry at her that she was going to abandon us like this, with nothing to shield us from Miss Hannigan's fury, and maybe a bit jealous that she had parents to come back to, and maybe resentment because the friendly orphan had never tried to be friends with me, Alice the loner. Finally I gave her a glance that let her know I had noted her escape tactics. And that I wished her luck.

"Bundles, get out of here with that laundry!" Miss Hannigan tapped her foot impatiently.

Bundles picked up the bag—with Annie in it-- and saluted her. "So long, gorgeous—and Merry Christmas."

Miss Hannigan paced the room, checking the floor. "Huh, you call this clean, Annie." She laughed. "This place is like a _pigsty_...Annie? Annie?" The wicked grin immediately dropped from her face as her head swayed back and forth, searching for the missing girl.

"Annie ain't here," we finally chorused.

"_What do you mean 'Annie ain't here'?_" Miss Hannigan was beyond rage. She was completely nuts with confusion, rage, and her perpetual animosity towards little girls.

Tessie was bursting with giggles, not worried at all for once. "She just went. With Mr. Bundles." She giggled again.

"In the laundry bag," Molly added, looking proud like she had come up with the idea.

"_Bundles!_" Miss Hannigan screeched, running out the door in hysterics. "_Police! Police!_"

We cheered at this momentary departure of our cruel dictator and the escape of our favorite prisoner. "No more hard-knock life for Annie!" July said. "The lucky duck, she got away!"

_Ah, but we don't get off so easy, do we? _my mind flashed.

"But we're gonna have to pay," Molly reminded her.

"Gonna get our faces slapped," Kate and Tessie groaned as they, too, came to full realization.

"Gonna get our knuckles rapped." Duffy and Pepper sat down on their cots and groaned.

Overlapping murmurs of "It's the hard-knock life" came from various members of the peanut gallery.

Now they were beginning to see my point. Annie's escape wasn't so great after all.


End file.
